Who enjoys wine daily? No judgement please! Just curious to know who else enjoys wine as much as I do and if it’s common or I am just crazy!

[Biosblbay]

So I do have two very young children, aged 3 and a 10 month old baby and I work full time so things can get very stressful. It gets to about 6pm and I just crave a glass of wine every single night and it definitely helps after a very hectic day! To be honest I have always had at least 1 glass of wine most nights from the age of about 25, I am now 32. Some people I know think it is mad that I have a glass or two almost every night but I feel this is so normal, especially for Mums. Who else is with me on this or am I not normal?! 😂

I’ve never had wine daily except on holiday but I used to love a glass (or more) of wine on Friday and Saturday nights. For the past few months I seem to have gone off wine and would rather have a glass of kombucha on a weekend. I don’t know what’s happened to me!!

In my 20s and early 30s I drank most nights. As did my parents and my friends' parents. Dad would have a G&T as soon as he got home. Mum would open the red when cooking.

Now my concentration the next day plummets after even a single drink, so I only drink at weekends. I think 'wine o'clock' is on the way out.

*weekends and holidays. There is wine every night then

My brother and his wife had a very nice comfortable life. Travelled all over the world, great jobs. Drank wine every day. Didn’t admit that it had become a problem; my brother died aged 50 from alcohol related liver poisoning. Death by misadventure was on his death certificate. Even a few weeks before his death I remember him saying he wished he knew why he felt so rubbish all the time, I said it was clearly all the alcohol and he was still in denial.
We come from a family who drank daily, it all seemed entirely normal. It’s not something I do, I’m not a fan of most alcohol so it’s easy to swerve when you don’t like the taste.

My hard working, professional ExDH drank every evening. Opening a bottle of wine to destress when you got home was totally normalised amongst his colleagues, (high-stress public sector senior management). Over 5 years it became one whole bottle a night, then two, but all totally ok because ‘everyone does it’ and he was still getting up and going to work the next day.

Being a functioning alcoholic creeps up on you and the impact of a disengaged partner, sat there knocking back the wine every night, ruined our marriage.

Didn't take long did it?
I drink more than a thimbleful of wine, but two large glasses a day is not a good habit to get into.

It has nothing to do with pearl clutching but common sense.

I like wine and enjoy it, but tend to usually keep it to weekends only.

This 🤷‍♀️ and the minimising, normalising and defensiveness is also part of the problem.

I think it's only a problem, if you couldn't possibly go a night or 2 without. the word crave isn't a great choice of word to pair with wine!

I personally couldn't drink every night....

Its certainly not normal. Don't underplay the risks of drinking alcohol everyday by calling it a 'treat for hardwork'. And why is it normal for mums? Do mums have some magical immunity towards addiction? Craving a drink and only feeling relaxed when you drink are problematic behaviours. Clearly you have already justified it to yourself by saying you have been doing so for 8-9 years. But there is a fallacy in your logic because you started drinking presumably before you had a very stressful job and certainly before children. It just seems you have made different excuses to give into your drinking over time. Maybe take this seriously and cut down.

175ml of 12% wine = 2 units. A lot of you are underestimating your intake and alcoholism.

Daily alcohol drinkers here until very recently (getting on for the big 50). I've had to knock it on the head as i was putting on weight and also feel better with early starts for work - old age kicking in! Still love a couple for social events in the week, but generally only drink at weekends or when WFH now.
Many, MANY people drink daily without it being a problem, MN is just full of weirdly left wing puritans.

Many, MANY people drink daily without it being a problem

Until it is.

MN is just full of weirdly left wing puritans.

What has being left wing to do with it? I only ever see being left wing being hurled as an insult on MN, which goes to show that mumsnet is full of Tory/Reform voters.

Although I agree that the teetotalers are somewhat judgemental.

Disclaimer: I love a glass of wine, but just drink it at weekends. I'm not a binge drinker either.

Not normal in my world even when I was young and child free.
I have a glass or two every few weeks. To me daily drinking indicates a problem.

How much did he drink every day and what did he die of? Was it something to do with alcohol or unrelated?

I was a heavy weekend drinker in my 20’s, probably two or three nights a week, was great fun! Had kids at 28/29 so sat at home night after night after night…and drank far more than is good for more than ten years. It started causing weight gain in my 40’s so I just stopped. Only drink if we go to a social event or dinner out, never at home now. I know I am lucky that I could just stop - lots of people can’t. I think for me it was more boredom than a dependency. Give a sober month or two a go OP, if you find it hard it’s probably time to re-think your habits.

I don’t think it’s about being a puritan or whatever other disparaging label people come up with.

The reality is that we are ultimately what we eat and drink, and it’s no coincidence that in the U.K. we have such high obesity compared to to other countries, and such poor physical and mental health. I also wonder how people can afford all this wine.

I'd love a glass every night but I make sure to have 3 days of not drinking a week, that is recommended.

I am in my 50’s, drink most days and have done all my life. It might be wine, beer or spirits. It’s usually only one or two drinks. I’ve never felt the need to creep up the quantity and I can quite happily do without for days on end. I like the taste and ritual of drinking alcohol & can’t imagine enjoying certain meals with the accompanying glass of red or white wine. I’m a perfectly healthy weight and have no other health or sleep issues.

I think most people use something to help them wind down, whether it’s a cup of tea, bar of chocolate, a bath or a walk. Obviously some of these habits are more healthy than others, but I think that if doing slightly ‘harmful to your body’ things in moderation brings you joy, then the benefits outweigh the risks. The problems arise when moderation turns into too much of something, but alcohol isn’t the only demon in that case.

@CatipussHe drank 3 drinks every day , lager or strong cider. Morning, noon and night. Like medicine. Died of liver disease.

You’d probably refer to me as one of those “puritans” but when you’ve seen multiple adults destroy their lives with alcohol it does tend to put you off it.

My granddad was an alcoholic and while he lived until his nineties he wasn’t exactly happy or healthy. He destroyed his liver, destroyed his family and ruined his relationships with most of his children and grandchildren.

I also used to have a client who was an alcoholic - when you’ve walked in on someone so incapacitated that she can’t control her bladder and bowels to the point that she lies in her own mess, and regularly had to call an ambulance (until she drank herself into multi organ failure and died alone in hospital at 56), it does tend to give you pause for thought 🙄

It's normal for me! I have a small glass of wine or a shot of whiskey most evenings. I just like the routine of it. It's always a small glass to sip will cooking and having dinner - not any more than that. So I think it's fine. I will occasionally go without on a Monday and Tuesday.

It's good that you can stop at 2 and not carry on / get drunk. It's significantly more than the advised weekly limit tho and it probably is doing some physical damage that you don't see yet. It's up to you what you want to prioritise but good to understand the risks

@itsbestservedcold 47

My parents drank every day of their lives. They’d say they were never ‘drunk’ They’d have two drinks each every single evening for decades. Come rain or shine. Despite them defensively saying they weren’t ‘drunk’ I knew as a young child and teen that once drink number one was consumed, they’d be irritatingly louder, intense and annoying to be around. It gave me anxiety. They’d say I was not impacted. I definitely was.

I’ve now been a carer for over a decade for one due to multiple brain diseases. There’s no doubt in my mind that bathing their brain cells in alcohol every single day of their lives caused their early decline. Alcohol is a poison. Fact. You wouldn’t drink a glass of petrol every day - so why would you drink a glass of alcohol? If you think just one drink every day does not put your body under intense stress, fit a whoop device to your arm and see your HRV scores for the week compared to when you don’t drink.

OP, is it causing you any problems or worry? Why did you start the thread?

It's not unusual to drink this much, lots of people do it. If you are fine with it, really it's nobody else's business if you don't behave antisocial or unsafely when under the influence. But if you are worried and would like to reduce or stop your drinking, there is definitely help out there!